For the first time in years, Hamilton vacancy rental rates are rising and I’m getting calls from landlords who can’t lease their unit in under 30 days.
Some of them have owned rentals in Hamilton for over a decade. They’ve never seen a vacancy last more than a week or two. A few are first-time landlords who bought during the 2021–2022 frenzy and priced their units based on what their neighbour got two years ago. Now their places are sitting empty, and they don’t know why.
The answer is straightforward. Hamilton’s rental vacancy rate is rising, and it’s been rising for two years running. The old playbook, list it high, wait a few days, pick from ten applicants, doesn’t work right now. If you’re pricing your unit the way you did in 2023, you’re going to sit vacant.
This post breaks down what the data actually shows, why it’s happening, and how to adjust your pricing so your unit leases on a reasonable timeline. I’ll also be honest about what this means if you’re used to rents that only went up.
What Hamilton rising vacancy rental rates mean and what the data actually shows
CMHC’s Fall 2025 Rental Market Report came out in December. The vacancy rate in the Hamilton CMA rose to 3.6% in 2025, which was above CMHC’s forecast and the highest level since the COVID-19 pandemic.
For context, that’s up from roughly 2% a year earlier. National vacancy also climbed, from 2.2% in 2024 to 3.1% in 2025, so Hamilton isn’t an outlier. We’re part of a broader correction.
Two things are driving it. The continued outflow of international students and an increase in condominium apartment rental supply. Downtown Hamilton (Zone 1) has seen a surge of condo completions, and the vacancy rate in that sub-market is higher than the CMA average.
There’s also more purpose-built rental stock coming online. Hamilton has around 4,200 purpose-built rental units under construction, with about 1,400 scheduled to deliver in 2026. That’s a meaningful addition for a market our size.
And the vacancy story isn’t uniform across property types. Premium single-family detached rentals in Ancaster, Dundas, and Waterdown are still running under 2%. Older walk-up apartments are closer to 4–6%. New condo towers downtown are north of 6%. If you own in Stoney Creek Mountain or east Hamilton, your numbers look different than a downtown condo investor’s.
I cover the full breakdown in our Hamilton rental market report, which we update as new CMHC data comes in.
Why this is harder for experienced landlords than new ones
Here’s the part nobody wants to say out loud. The landlords struggling most with the current market are the ones who’ve been in the business the longest.
If you bought in 2012 and watched rents climb every year for a decade, your mental model is that rents always go up. That’s what the data showed you. Every turnover was a chance to reset higher. You could be choosy about tenants because there were always more applicants. Marketing was almost an afterthought.
That pattern broke in 2024 and got worse in 2025. Landlords in many major cities are lowering rents on new leases to stay competitive, and nationally, turnover rents rose 8.7% in 2025, a significant slowdown from a 23.5% year-over-year increase in 2024. On some units, turnover rents are flat or down compared to the previous tenant.
I’ve had conversations with long-time landlords who still want to list their 2-bedroom at $2,400 because “that’s what it was getting in 2022.” The comparable units that actually leased last month were at $2,050. Until that gap closes, the unit stays empty. Every month vacant is a full month of lost rent, plus utilities and lost interest on the mortgage. You don’t make that back by holding out for a tenant who isn’t coming.
First-time landlords often have an easier time with the mindset because they don’t have a reference point. They look at today’s market comps, price accordingly, and move on. The experienced owners are fighting their own history.
How to actually price your unit right now
Here’s what works in a 3.6% vacancy market.
Price to the last 30 days, not the last 12 months. Look at what actually leased on Rentals.ca, Kijiji, Facebook Marketplace, and the local agent MLS in the last month. Not what’s listed. What got taken off the market. The spread between asking and achieved is wider than it’s been in years.
Price within 3% of comparable units. If the last three comparable 2-bedrooms in your postal code leased at $2,050, $2,100, and $2,075, you list at $2,075, maybe $2,125 if the unit has clear upgrades. Listing at $2,300 to “leave room to negotiate” just filters out the 2025 applicant pool.
Factor in the incentives your competitors are offering. CMHC’s report notes that landlords in major cities are offering incentives to new tenants, such as a month of free rent, moving allowances and signing bonuses. If new downtown condo buildings are offering one or two free months, a similarly priced listing without any concession is going to sit. You don’t necessarily need to match that, but you need to know what you’re competing with.
Expect 14 days to lease on a competitively priced unit. Not three days. Not one day. Two weeks is the current reality on a well-priced, well-marketed unit. If you’re sitting at 30 or 45 days, something is wrong, and it’s almost always the price.
Market in the first week of vacancy. Don’t wait until the previous tenant has moved out to start showing. Clean, photograph, and list before the unit is empty. Every day of overlap is a day of rent you keep collecting.
What rising vacancy doesn’t mean
A couple of things to be clear about. Rising vacancy does not mean the sky is falling. Rent correction is underway, but is unlikely to last long-term.
For landlords on rent-controlled tenancies, the 2026 rent increase guideline is 2.1%, and units first occupied after November 15, 2018 remain exempt from rent control. Rising turnover vacancy doesn’t change the mechanics of raising rent on an existing tenant. If you haven’t served your 2026 N1 notices yet, do it now.
Hamilton’s fundamentals are also still solid. GTA migration, the McMaster corridor, and the hospital sector keep demand steady. We’re seeing a supply-side adjustment, not a collapse in demand.
Where a property manager actually helps in this market
When vacancy was 1.5%, pretty much anyone could lease a Hamilton rental. The market did the work. At 3.6%, it matters a lot more who’s handling your pricing, your listing, your showings, and your applicant screening.
At Found Spaces, we manage over 600 units across Hamilton, Stoney Creek, Ancaster, Dundas, and the greater Hamilton area. That means we have real-time data on what’s leasing, at what price, and how fast, across dozens of comparable units every month. We’re not guessing.
Our process for every turnover: pull last-30-day comps for the exact sub-market and unit type, price within 3% of the range, list professional photos within 48 hours of notice, schedule showings in blocks, and screen applicants on a scored rubric. Whether it’s a duplex in the lower city or a single-family rental in Ancaster, the workflow is the same, and the median days-to-lease on our units in 2026 is sitting right around that 14-day mark.
You can also check our property management services if you want to see what the full scope covers, or read up on the latest Ontario rental regulations that affect how you price, serve notices, and handle LTB matters.
The mindset shift
The hardest part of the current market isn’t the math. The math is easy. Price to comps, adjust for concessions, market hard, lease fast.
The hard part is accepting that your unit is worth what the market will pay for it today, not what it was worth in 2022. I’ve had this conversation with investors who’ve owned for 20 years. Some accept it quickly. Some hold out for six months of vacancy before they lower the rent, and by that point, they’ve lost far more than any “discount” would have cost them.
If you want a second set of eyes on your pricing, or you’re heading into a turnover and not sure where to list, reach out. Happy to pull comps and talk through what the numbers actually say. No pitch.
Kate Mackay is the founder and CEO of Found Spaces Property Management, managing over 600 rental units across Hamilton, Stoney Creek, Ancaster, Dundas, and the greater Hamilton area. She built Found Spaces from the ground up starting in 2017 and specializes in full-service property management for residential landlords and real estate investors.
